Without politics

It’s not easy holding a general policy debate in a country without politics

Vicenç Villatoro
1 min

It’s not easy holding a general policy debate in a country without politics. What differentiates a parliament from a chat in a pub or an academic symposium is that, apart from making speeches, people engage in politics. In other words, people negotiate, agree and vote. And what is voted upon is acted upon. This doesn’t happen in Catalonia. In Catalonia politics isn’t allowed to happen. Some don’t want it to happen. And those who do aren’t able to do it.

For some, Parliament is like a TV show that’s some sort of continuation of an Orange Day Parade. For many others, it’s a space in which to conduct an election campaign. The pro-independence parties have been unable to tie their key demands to the day-to-day running of the country. The upshot is that politics can’t take place. There’s no room for negotiation. And when there is, it’s not possible to put what has been voted upon into practice.

In today’s debate, good speeches were made and repugnant speeches were made. But it wasn’t possible to engage in politics. Obviously, some will say that if we refrain from discussing the big issues concerning our country’s future, we can engage in everyday politics. However, such a limitation –-small issues, yes; big issues, no-– can only be accepted by someone who shares the opinion expressed by the socialist spokesperson, Eva Granados, several days ago: in politics, some things are too important to be left up to the people.

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